Social Play Groups

The Airplane Spoon offers a variety of small group therapy sessions
that are designed to support children and parents
through a shared community of trust, engagement, learning, and enjoyment.

Cooking Group

  • This group is designed for children who have feeding challenges related to sensory systems, emotional regulation, and oral-motor skills.

  • This is a group with play and learning around food using pretend play, music, cooking recipes, and peer modeling and interactions!

    Some of our foods may be smoothies, tacos, pizza, pancakes, and more!

Foundational Language Group

  • This group is designed for children who are communicating at the single-word level and have had limited supported peer interactions.

  • This is a group that helps create the foundations of social and peer interaction (collaboration, communication, and following instructions) through music, art, books, and play.

Expanding Language Group

  • This group is designed for children who are communicating at the phrase or sentence level and have a skill set of playing near or around peers with some interaction or interest in others.

  • This group helps promote the expansion of social and peer interaction (sharing, initiation, and teamwork) through music, art, books, games, and play.

AAC Group

  • This group is designed for children who use AAC systems (TouchChat, TDSnap, LAMP, etc.) to create a community where this type of communication is normalized and promoted.

  • This group includes peer play, language modeling, and language expansion through books, music, and sharing activities.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What ages are the groups for?

Our groups are specifically designed for young children (ages 2 - 6*). Some older children with more complex needs may be considered.

How big are the groups?

Groups are kept small, ranging from 3-5 children to allow for more practice and a more familiar relationship building setting.

How long do groups run for?

Our group Groups run for 60 minutes, once a week, for 10 weeks. The same set of 3-4 families are enrolled in the closed group for the full 10-week term to build on previously targeted skills from week to week and to build a community.

Where are the groups held?

All groups are held at our developmental center (697 Menlo Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025). Winter groups are held inside and Spring/Summer/Fall groups are all held outside in our enclosed outdoor play space. We have our own private parking lot and bathroom for families’ access during group times.

How much do they cost? Are they reimbursable?

These 10-hour closed have a cost of $150/session ($1500 total for the camp week), which includes all of the activity materials as well as snacks. A detailed coded Superbill is provided for families who submit their paid invoices to their insurance companies for reimbursement purposes.

Let’s Play Together!

Are you interested in signing up for one of our social groups?
Please fill out this form and we will be in touch shortly! We can't wait to hear from you!

My experience of parent-involved social groups is reassuring for my child’s growth.

It is a good platform to see how your child interacts with her peers and what challenges she faces with social interaction. I would say it’s the best way to expose your child to the outer world. 

It is also comforting for us as parents to realize that we are not alone by talking to other parents and getting their input, too.

-Rekha, mother of 6-year-old girl

We started to work with the Airplane Spoon family when our son was diagnosed with ASD at the age of 2. Out of all the therapy services we interacted with, The Airplane Spoon has been the most helpful and it has been instrumental in our son's amazing progress in the past 2 years.

Looking back, we are very happy that we had the opportunity to learn first-hand information and techniques during parent-involved groups when we were trying to figure things out.

We also greatly appreciate the general approach adopted at the Airplane Spoon where it's always cue-based focusing on creating positive associations for children. Our son loves to meet and play with the therapists and friends there, which we believe helped build a great foundation for his social interaction skills because of the strong relationship between therapists and families. 

-M & D, Parents of 4-year-old boy